The key difference is which folder is the base - for Next it’s the root (.) folder, and for CRA it’s the src folder.

We also want to ensure we exclude node_modules, which is explicit for Next ("exclude": ["node_modules"]) and implicit for CRA (accomplished by only "include": ["src"]). This does not impact your ability to import and use packages (e.g. import React from "react" still works), but it does stop VS Code to not attempt to index and provide intellisense on your node_modules folder.

So, now you’ve saved some time (and frustration) by binning relative imports, perhaps it’s time to consider type checking your JavaScript? If I’ve wasted minutes on relative imports, then I think I’m into hours (or days!) lost that "checkJs": true could have saved me.